Koru Training @ McMaster University
KORU is a 4-week, 1.5 hour per week mindfulness and meditation class, designed to teach emerging adults and students how to better manage their stress. It was developed at Duke University by psychiatrist Dr. Holly Rogers and others based on years of experimenting with various approaches to teaching post-secondary students’ mindfulness and meditation skills.
With our MHIF fund, Arrive and Thrive at McMaster trained 6 counselling and health professionals and offered KORU on campus. We led 22 groups over 18 months with 205 of the participants completing some of our outcome measures. Our preliminary results based on this feasibility study are outlined on a research poster (attached), and indicate significant reductions in stress (Perceived Stress Scale), anxiety and depressive symptoms (Kessler 10 Scale) and increased mindfulness (Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale). We also had high retention rates, with over 80% attending at least 3 classes. KORU teachers and students expressed very positive feedback about teaching and taking these classes.
We are considering offering a teacher training at McMaster in November 2017 possibly a Thursday to Saturday in Hamilton, bringing in the leaders/trainers from Duke for a 3-day training at a cost of approximately $1900 per person including food and training (no accommodations) for between 40-60 individuals. We would like to get an idea about the numbers who might be potentially interested in participating in this training before we commit to this.
If you are interested and can secure potential funding to cover your costs, please contact me with the subject KORU TRAINING at munnc@mcmaster.ca. Details of the pre-requisites and KORU are available on the KORU site at http://korumindfulness.org/
Ontario College Counsellors 